Whitehall Delinquent Transferred To Parkland

July 30, 1989|by DAN FRICKER, The Morning Call

One of two 14-year-old boys who threatened each other with weapons last February in Whitehall-Coplay Middle School transferred to the Parkland School District soon after the incident, a school official said Friday.

The other boy was reinstated at Whitehall-Coplay last week after a period of expulsion.

Daniel Yakubecek, superintendent of Whitehall-Coplay School District, confirmed that the student had transferred to the neighboring district. He said the boy transferred six to eight weeks after the Feb. 15 incident.

Brian Muschlitz, a Lehigh County juvenile probation officer, had said the second student transferred to another district. But Muschlitz declined to identify the district or say whether it is in the Lehigh Valley.

Yakubecek's statement comes one day after the Whitehall-Coplay School Board voted 8-0 to reinstate the other 14-year-old boy as a ninth-grader.

Following the incident, both boys were suspended for 10 days, then expelled, Yakubecek said.

As a condition of the reinstatement, Muschlitz wrote a letter to the School Board stating that the boy has complied with his probation, including performing community service.

On the advice of board solicitor Ed McCardle, Yakubecek refused to answer any questions after the board meeting about the reinstatement or the incident.

The boys were apprehended Feb. 15 after brandishing weapons in a middle school corridor before first-period class. One boy produced a 10-inch kitchen knife, prompting the other to withdraw a .22-caliber

semiautomatic pistol containing three bullets.

Police at the time said they believed the incident was part of a continuing fight over two girls.

Yakubecek said the reinstated boy was found guilty of a less serious offense than the boy who transferred, but he could not elaborate.